


We Found Each Other Hungry

by DiamondsxStags



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/M, Oswald is Jewish, This first takes place before the beginning of the series, This will be told from Oswald's POV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 12:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3119945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiamondsxStags/pseuds/DiamondsxStags
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oswald Cobblepot is just another one of Fish Mooney's cronies, waiting for his chance to rise above Fish and Falcone and become a big timer in Gotham. But when he meets Minnie Cooper, a beautiful young woman who wants to be a singer at Fish's club, Oswald falls head over heels for the poor little soul and takes it upon himself to act as her protector and guide in Gotham's underworld. Nothing could possibly go wrong...right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Found Each Other Hungry

_My love,_

_We have found each other_

_Thirsty and we have_

_Drunk up all the water and the_

_Blood,_

_We found each other_

_Hungry_

_And we bit each other_

_As fire bites,_

_Leaving wounds in us_

-'Absence' by Pablo Neruda

 

**The Beginning**

 

I am, both as a result of my nature and the environment I grew up in, an observant man. Observation is a skill one must learn in order to survive in Gotham. Without it, it's hard to figure out who Gotham you should be wary of (which is just about everyone) and who you can trust (which is just about no one). Yes, if I owe Gotham thanks for anything, it is for providing me with a place where I can hone my observational skills and put them to good use (and of course, I owe it a thank you for being the place where I ultimately met Min). But there is something else I owe Gotham; and that is my beginnings as a lackey in Don Falcone's mob. The story of how I came to get that job is long and dull so I will not subject you to it, instead I will skip ahead to the part where I am one of Fish Mooney's many underlings, more specifically, the one who carried her umbrella for her and gave her foot massages and did anything she told me to. She said jump, I said how high Miss Mooney?; it was the way of things back then. On the day I met Min, I had been assigned the job of keeping Fish company while she watched people audition to be one of the new acts at her club. Unfortunately not many of them were any good and as a result, I was subjected to so-called 'singers' who really ought to work on their pitch, wannabe comedians who could do with polishing their acts, and amateur magicians who looked like they never did anything bigger than their cousin's fifth birthday party. There were a handful of good candidates, but by the end of it all, I was ready to tear my hair out. Fish, another very observant individual, looked over at me and smirked.

"Not to worry Oswald, we've got just one more contender." Fish nodded at one of her other cronies and he went backstage to get the last one.

I held back a sigh and rolled my eyes-but I stopped mid-eye roll when I saw who the last person was. It was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Where Fish was all sharp edges and angels, from the structure of her face to the way she spoke, this other woman was completely the opposite; she was soft looking and I guessed that underneath the trench coat she was wearing, she was curvaceous. Her eyes were wide, doe-like. Golden. I never thought anyone could really have golden eyes, I thought it was created by a trick of the light, but her eyes truly did look like they were golden. Even her hair looked soft, bobbed just at her nape of her neck and completely black. She looked at Fish nervously and licked her perfect, pink lips. "G-good evening Miss Mooney." She said timidly, with a slight drawl that I couldn't quite place.

"Good evening dear." If Fish was surprised at this show of fearful politeness, she didn't show it beyond a smirk. "What's your name?"

"Minnie Cooper. But, everyone just calls me Min." I told myself the reason why her response sounded rehearsed was because she had been practicing what to say backstage. "I-I'm from New Orleans." She bit her lip and looked slightly more afraid.

"Well that explains the accent." Fish turned her smirk into a gentle, deceptively motherly smile. "What are you going to do for us dear?"

"I-I'm going to sing." Min wrung her hands and rubbed the back of her calf with her foot. "I know you've heard a lot of singers today, but there's really nothing else I can do."

"That's perfectly fine." Fish gestured to Min. "When you're ready."

Min nodded. "Yes ma'am." She went off to the side of the stage and came back with some sheets of music which she handed to the piano player. She went back to the microphone and licked her lips again. "I-I'm going to sing 'Blue Velvet'." She looked over at the piano player and nodded. He started to play and she cleared her throat, while slowly undoing her trench coat belt. "She wore-" the trench coat fell off her shoulders, "-blue velvet."

Hiding beneath her coat was a sleek, tailored blue velvet dress that confirmed my theory that she was curvaceous. I watched, transfixed, as she slid her delicate hands down her hips and gently swayed as she sang.

"Bluer than velvet was the night." Her voice was soft, whispery. The way I imagined a lover's voice would sound in the early morning. I say 'imagined' because at that point in time, I hadn't had a lover, much less one that spoke to me in the early morning. "Softer than satin was the light."

After that, I was completely lost. Sound no longer existed except as a low, distant hum. The world and everything in it vanished; everything that is, except for me, the table I was sitting at, and Min. Her lips, so pink and soft and trembling slightly, were still moving but I couldn't quite make out what she was saying. All I knew was that I had never seen anyone so beautiful, so exquisite, so utterly glorious. And so vulnerable. I knew she had to be new to Gotham; no Gothamite or long-time resident of Gotham worth their salt would dare look so defenseless and weak; but she did. For all I knew it was part of the act, but if it was it was definitely working. Everything was slowed down, to the point where I could feel every slow beat of my heart.

"-I still see blue velvet through. My. Tears."

When I heard her voice again I came back to reality. I looked around wildly and when I saw Fish and the few other cronies in the club applauding, I quickly joined in. I looked back at Min, who was smiling with nervous happiness. "T-thank you. Thank you ma'am."

"That was very good dear."  _That_ was high praise indeed from Fish. She smiled and gestured to the crony that had showed Min onto the stage. "Give Frankie here your contact details and we'll get back to you as soon as we can."

Min nodded, her smile grew and she seemed to be more confident. "Of course. Thank you again ma'am." She picked her trench coat up and put it back on, getting her sheet music back as she did so, before going to Frankie and writing some thing down on a piece of paper for him. "Have a good evening ma'am."

"You too dear." Fish watched Min leave. Once Min was out of the door, Fish's head snapped back to me so quickly I was surprised her neck didn't break. Her smirk was back. "What do you think Oswald?"

"M-me?" I felt nervous and swallowed. "Well, she can certainly sing."

Fish raised an eyebrow. "Yes, she certainly can. And she's a performer too. Taking off her coat like that was a nice touch. But really Oswald, tell me what you think."

If I had truly told Fish what I had thought, I would've immediately killed myself out of mortification. "I think she's...very pretty." I said instead, considering each of my words carefully. "She's bound to attract a lot of customers."

"Oh I don't doubt that." She rose and I quickly rose with her. "Go home Oswald." She said. "It's been a long day."

I nodded. "Of course Miss Mooney." I didn't dare call her Fish. I left the club and as I did so, I saw Min. She was standing on the sidewalk, shivering and huddled under her trench coat, trying to get a cab and failing. To this day I don't know what made me do it; whether it was because I felt a sudden burst of kindness for the scared little doe I saw standing there, or because I wanted to seem strong and powerful and I wasn't in that position often and I wanted to take the opportunity to do so that had so perfectly presented itself to me. Either way, I walked over to her and gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me miss?"

Min jumped and gasped, actually gasped the way they did in the movies, and whirled around, looking like a deer caught in headlights. It seemed like no matter what she did, she looked like a nervous little deer. "Oh, hello." She smiled and the whole of Gotham lit right up. Just like that. "Y-you were in the club. W-with Miss Mooney."

"Yeah, I'm Oswald Cobblepot." I offered her my hand and she shook it. Her skin was softer than I had imagined. I didn't think it was possible, but standing there, under the streetlamp, Min looked far more beautiful than a person standing under a streetlamp ought to look. And now that I was closer to her, I could see more of her. For one, here eyes really were gold. I could see some flecks of brown in them here and there, but other than that they were pure gold. For another, her mouth was a truly perfect bow shape, and her nose was elegant and slim, rather than large and beaky like mine. She was very tanned as well, a few shades darker than olive, but I guessed that was because of New Orleans and that after living in Gotham for a while she'll lose the colour the become a little paler. "You were very good in there."

"Oh." Min looked down and I could just make out a faint blush on her cheeks. She raised her head again and smiled. "T-thank you Mr Cobblepot."

Mr Cobblepot. I liked the sound of that. Especially the way she said it. "There's no need to call me that." I told her kindly. "Oswald is fine."

Min nodded. "O-Oswald then. That's a very nice name."

"You think so?" I was suddenly suspicious and wondered what she was trying to pull. No one had ever called my name nice, they called it 'stuffy' and 'hard to pronounce' before I changed the Kapleput to Cobblepot. I remember one guy from high school said my name was 'pretty Jew-y'. I ended up sitting in front of the principle after giving the guy a broken nose and a split lip. He never so much as looked me after that.

"Oh definitely." She nodded her head seriously and I instantly felt bad for suspecting her of being insincere. "Definitely. I think it's a very grand name. Very grand."

She spoke like someone out of the black and white movies my mom loves so much and I found it very endearing and charming. "That's very kind of you Miss Cooper."

"Min." She said. "Since I get to call you Oswald and all, you can call me Min." She rubbed her hands together and tilted her head to the side. "Oswald, I know we only just met and all, but can you be honest with me about something?"

Honest? I would've promised her anything; my life, Gotham, the world. Honesty was the least of the things I would've given her. And how could anyone not be honest with this sweet little woodland creature? "Of course! What would you like me to be honest about?"

"Did I  _really_ do a good job back there, or are you just being nice?" She bit her bottom lip. "You can be honest."

"I really  _do_ think you did a good job." I assured her, nodding frantically. I probably looked like a bobble-head. "Honest. You have a lovely singing voice and Fish Mooney herself said that you taking off your coat was a nice touch." Out of impulse, my eyes wandered downwards to Min's chest which was visible thanks to her coat being unbuttoned. Nestled tightly in her blue velvet dress were Min's breasts which were an impressive size. My eyes looked them over and and looked down at the valley of cleavage that was between them. When I realized what I was doing, I immediately raised my eyes again and felt my face heat up. I prayed that she hadn't noticed. "Yes, she said it was a very nice touch."

"Oh good." Min let out a breath and she seemed to relax a little. It seemed like she hadn't noticed. Or, if she had noticed, she pretended she hadn't. I hoped she didn't think I was some kind of creep. "I wondered if it would be a bit much but I wanted to start off with something...." she waved her hands in front of her chest, trying to find the right word to say.

"Big?" The word came out before I could stop myself and I had to tear my eyes away from her chest again.

"Yeah! That's it! Big!" Min giggled. Music to my ears. "Thanks Oswald." She wrung her hands nervously, the way she had on stage. "Wh-when do you think I'll hear from Miss Mooney?"

"Sometime in the next couple of days." I said. "Fish Mooney is a very busy woman, but I'm sure you'll hear from her by then. You'll definitely hear from her by the end of the week."

Min nodded. "By the end of the week." She echoed. "Right. Got it." She bit her bottom lip again and cleared her throat. "Hey, Oswald, I hate to be a bother but...um..."

"But what?" I asked, probably a bit too eagerly.

"C-could you possibly...hail a cab for me?" She looked embarrassed and looked down. "It's a lot easier to do it in New Orleans." She said. "But I guess that's because I'm still kinda new here."

"Oh sure, no problem." I stood a little closer to the edge of the sidewalk and looked for a cab. "Ah, there's one." I waved my hand out and got the cab driver's attention. They pulled up beside me and I turned to Min, smiling. "Your chariot awaits my lady." I always thought that the guys said things like that probably felt silly, but I didn't feel silly at all. I even opened the back door for her.

Min giggled again. "Thank you gentle knight."

As she climbed in I blurted out: "Do you have enough money to get home?" I started to reach into my back pocket before she even answered. I pulled out ten dollars and thrust it towards her. "Here."

"Oh there's no need for that Oswald." She said and she pushed my hand away. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

But I shook my head and held out the money stubbornly. "Take it, just in case."

Min looked at my hand and then at me. I held my breath. She gently took the ten dollars. Her fingers lightly brushed against my palm. My heart stopped. "Thank you."

I breathed again. "You're welcome."

"I'll pay you back." She promised as she got into the back of the cab.

"Don't worry about it." I said and I meant it. "Just get home safe ok? Gotham's a dangerous city."

"Gotcha." She nodded and smiled. "You know what Oswald?"

"What?"

"You're awfully sweet." She smiled. "See you around." She closed the cab's door and after a moment, she was gone, down the road in the backseat of a bright yellow Gotham City taxi.

_"You're awfully sweet."_

"Thanks." I mumbled, even though I knew it was too late. "Thanks." Sweet...she had called me sweet. The only person who had ever called me sweet was my mom, and compliments like that don't really count when they come from your parents do they? But coming from a beauty...no, coming from a  _goddess_ like her, it felt like the world had tilted. All because of her. Min.

When I finally came to my senses, I realized it was getting late and my mom was probably getting worried. She does that. Gets worried. I hailed a cab for myself and got in. I gave the driver the address for the apartment building where my mom and I lived. As Gotham went past me in a blur of tall dark buildings, some with the windows lit, others completely blank, my head was in the clouds.

_"T-thank you Mr Cobblepot."_

_"Definitely. I think it's a very grand name. Very grand."_

_"You're awfully sweet."_

It was official. I had just met her and I was already head over heels in love with Minnie Cooper.

 

 


End file.
